Betty's Boyfriend
by WriteEditLife
Summary: Jughead's thoughts on being called Bettys' boyfriend. A scene from 1x08.


Jughead was lost in deep thought. He was sitting on a bright, red couch in the student lounge of Riverdale High, his left hand propping up his head, leaning back against the large cushions, Betty sitting with perfect posture to his right. Veronica, Archie, Valerie and Cheryl rounded out the small group. The conversation was on Polly, the elder Cooper sister, finally returned to Riverdale after escaping the Sisters of Quiet Mercy just days before.

The action of the rescue was over, but the tough questions remained. How would everyone deal with Polly now that she was back, and pregnant with Jason Blossom's baby. That was life changing information for both the Blossom's and the Cooper's, and due to Jason's mysterious death, the whole of Riverdale.

Jughead turned his dark eyes to Betty, always ready with reason and logic for every situation. When she found time to do so much research baffled him, but she simply absorbed the information and then applied logic to it in conversation, despite that fact that the fate and future of Polly and her baby was information that seemed to change constantly.

"Polly has convinced herself that no one wants her baby," Betty revealed.

"Except the child snatching Blossom monsters," Kevin interrupted, "No offense, Cheryl." He added quickly with a glance at the intimidating red head sitting to his left.

"None taken" Cheryl replied with a slight shake of her head, her voice dripping with obvious sarcasm.

"So your mom and dad want and not the baby and the Blossoms want the baby and not Polly," Jughead reasoned, glancing to Betty for confirmation. "That's a true Gordian knot," he finished, a look of reproach on his face as he looked down at the table in front of him, his left hand cradling his beanie laden head.

"It's an impossible situation," Betty slowly answered, saying each word slowly as though if she said them out loud it really made them true. She tossed a soft look at Jughead as she finished.

"Betty, C'mon. An impossible situation is being invited to the Vanity Flare Oscar party and Elton John's Oscar party on the same night." Veronica provided gesturing with her head and hands towards Betty, trying to ease the dramatic tension in the room with a flashy reference to her former life, which really would have caused this level of tension to someone like her.

As Kevin gently placed his hand on her shoulder, she turned to look at her gay best friend and said, "Which happened to me one year, I know." She quickly turned back to Betty, keeping the conversation on her and Polly's situation while Kevin had a glaze of wonder across his features at Veronica's admission.

"This is merely an annoying situation. But luckily, I have been percolating on an idea. Hellishly simple in its conception," Veronica provided, eyes narrowing as she made eye contact with Betty, her posture giving away that she was leading up to a big reveal that could possibly solve Polly's dilemma. "What if my mom and I were to host a baby shower?" She continued, folding her hands in her lap, glancing around the room with a proud smirk, waiting for the others to be impressed or at least weigh in on her problem-solving idea.

"Count me in!" Cheryl exclaimed from her spot across the room, a brilliant smile on her face, excited by the opportunity to spoil her future niece or nephew.

"You want Polly to feel loved and supported, right?" Veronica said, trying to ease Betty's obvious worry at her idea.

"Yeah, ideally by her own parents," Betty replied, trying to emphasize the importance of her parents supporting Polly with a baby shower instead of a friend of Betty's.

"Okay, so baby steps girl." Veronica reasoned, with a small flip of her black, in an attempt to get Betty on board. "Get Polly and your parents in the same room, in a public setting, where they can't fight, and "Wha la! Let the healing begin" Veronica finished.

"Am I expected to come to this thing?" Jughead wondered aloud, finally injecting his deep voice into the conversation. His eyes and Betty's seemed to gravitate together like magnets as soon as he spoke, her mouth tilting up in a slight smile at his words.

"Of course! You're Betty's boyfriend." Veronica answered immediately, looking between him and Betty, gesturing to him slightly before sipping her coffee.

A short silence filled the air around the group of teens, Jughead's eyes moving back to the table in front of him, attempting to miss the look of wide surprise on Kevin's face and also the look of uncertainty on Archie's.

He quickly looked over at Betty, her eyes glittering with an obvious happiness that filled him with quick content. He examined her beautiful face and found nothing there but happiness. No surprise, uncertainty, or shame. She didn't even seem shy about Jughead being called her boyfriend.

There it was. Boyfriend. The word he never dared hope would be associated to him with the gorgeous Betty Cooper. The perfect girl next door, cheerleader, author of the Blue and Gold, and the object of his quiet and unrequited affection until very recently.

Jughead felt a slight smile creep onto his face as he stared back into Betty's green eyes, lost in their own little world of wonder, a new tone of finality between them. The labeling stage of the relationship was merely a social construct since Jughead had his soul connect with Betty's when he kissed her in her bedroom. Their next kiss outside her house was initiated by her, a simple gesture that confirmed her affection for Jughead. Since then, they had both let their eye contact do the talking, focusing on the soap opera that was their daily lives in Riverdale, never stopping to have the inevitable "What are we to each other?" conversation. Jughead firmly believed that this conversation with Betty was unnecessary, and given the proud look in her eyes at Veronica's use of the word boyfriend and the swell of his heart in his chest, well, that confirmed it.

His reverie was suddenly broken when he heard Veronica dramatically state, "Oh my God, you guys, it's just a word that starts with the letter B." Her perfectly manicured hands out in front of her, willing this new word to not cause a big issue.

Betty's smile was really bright now, her high blonde ponytail swinging slightly as she kept eye contact with him. After a few moment, Betty looked down towards the wooden table in front of them, obviously trying to tone down her happy smile and suppress a spirit lifting giggle from her pink lips.

Boyfriend. It really shouldn't be a big deal, Jughead thought. Veronica was right, it was just a word. As a writer, he could appreciate that. He knew that he wanted to be Betty's boyfriend, and had he dated anyone else that word boyfriend probably would've been tossed at him at some point. However, he truly never thought her would be Betty's boyfriend. If he was really being honest with himself, he could only ever see himself with Betty. And now here he was, Betty Cooper's boyfriend. What started out as a mutual interest to uncover Jason's Blossom's murder turned into a trusting friendship, which turned into a romance, unlike anything Jughead could have ever imagined.

"Betty, what do you say?" Veronica inquired quietly, hoping for a yes. Betty glanced back up to answer Veronica, but before she could, he was greeted to the intimidating sight of Alice Cooper marching into the lounge, clearly on a mission for answers. She quickly whisked both Betty and Veronica away, leaving the question unanswered. Jughead returned to his thoughts, knowing Betty would share whatever that was about with him afterwards.

Knowing her, Betty has already made up her mind to let Veronica throw Polly a baby shower, because that was how giving her gorgeous heart was. She would do anything for her sister, and by extension Jughead, so he would do anything for Betty. His girlfriend.


End file.
